EMBL Hamburg News
Co-operation agreement signed between GKSS and EMBL to join forces on the future BioSAXS beamline at Petra-III
Detector stage of the BioSAXS Beamline
GKSS - Forschungszentrum Geesthacht GmbH has decided to contribute to the construction and future operation of the small angle X-ray scattering beamline (BioSAXS) at the Petra III synchrotron on the DESY campus.
The GKSS is a member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres and has sites in Geesthacht near Hamburg and Teltow near Berlin. At DESY, the GKSS currently operates one beamline at DORIS III and is planning to operate two beamlines at the PETRA III synchrotron.
EMBL-Hamburg is building three beamlines for applications in structural biology at PETRA-III, of which two will be for macromolecular X-ray crystallography and the third will be for small angle X-ray scattering of biological samples. The GKSS will contribute 15% to the construction and operation of the biological SAXS beamline. During the construction phase, part of this contribution will be a dectector translation stage, built by the GKSS. Start of operation of the BioSAXS beamline is planned for 2011.
The beamline will be dedicated to solution scattering experiments on biological samples. The world leading source properties of PETRA III will be exploited to produce an optimal beam for these experiments. Applications will include data collection optimized for macromolecular shape determination, high-throughput screening of protein solutions under variable conditions, and time-resolved SAXS experiments for the investigation of enzyme kinetics.